Thursday, 1 September 2016

A bride-to-be struggling to cope with the death of her best friend accidentally killed herself after believing she could go "half-way to heaven" in a bid to say a final goodbye. Jazmine Howarth, 25, (left) claimed she could "control" death and meet up with tragic mum-of-one Dionne Corbett (right) - who died just two weeks' earlier before returning "to the land of the living".

Jazmine's best friendDionne Corbett had killed herself two weeks ago in her home while Jazmine also took her own life in a community garden

A police inquest heard that Dionnes death had left her friend devastated with the women having been best friends since they were toddlers.

Jazmine and Dionnehad even talked about getting pregnant at the same time so they could go through it all together.

Police found out that Jazmine wrote a string of letters saying she wanted to see Dionne for one last time before coming back so she could carry on with her life.

Coroner Lisa Hashmi ruled death by misadventure, saying she did not believe Jazmine had meant to kill herself.

She said: I have no doubt that the loss of her close and very dear friend in very tragic circumstances would have had a profound effect. She attended the chapel of rest to say her goodbyes. I believe she would have found that cathartic.

They had been of course very close, described as sisterly. Both had had conversations about what the other would do if one lost another, it may have underpinned her actions, but I could not say for sure what bearing, if any, it had.

According to the coroner the young woman had a superstitious mind and believed she could return.

She said: What I cant ignore are the letters, whilst it may be that some of them were drafted in the days before her death, described as a superstitious belief in Jazmines mind, a number of letters were found that suggested that Jazmine wanted to speak to Dionne for one last time.

That she believed she could meet Dionne and return to the land of living. What I believe was a failure to appreciate how quick one could die. She had a mistaken belief that she could just pass beyond and return. Quite clearly that was a mistake on her part. Its probably the naivety of youth that resulted in her sad, tragic and untimely death.

Jazmine's family said they initially thought she was coming to speak at Dionne's funeral, not knowing she was planning to take her own life too.

Her aunt said: We actually thought that she was much more settled than she had been in a long time. Obviously when her friend Dionne died she was absolutely devastated and the day before Jazmine took her own life she went to say goodbye to Dionne in the chapel with her mum. But there was no indication to her mum that she was thinking of joining her.

The letter to her mum indicated that what ever she intended to do she thought she could control it. She was very much planning for the funeral, she was looking at reading, planning for that. I know nobody ever expects it but we werent it wasnt even on our radar.

Jazmines fiance Brendan Cawley said: They classed each other as sisters, one wouldnt do without the other. She broke down crying saying, ‘Yeah but I promised I would go and get her.

She said that she wanted to go and see her, go halfway to make sure she was alright. Two days before she died I woke up in the middle of the night and looked at Jazmine, she was writing on a piece of paper, I said, ‘What are you doing?. She said, ‘Nothing, its stupid. I thought in my head that it must be something to do with Dionne.

Mr Cawley said they both argued before she ran off and locked the door behind her.